Kandy Rain were the first act to get voted off the first-ever Sunday night results show on The X Factor last night. But not before leaving the judges all square with their appropriately forceful rendition of Christina Aguilera's 'Fighter' in the sing-off. We spoke to Azi Jegbefume, Coco Lloyd, Khatereh Dovani and Chemmane Applewhite about the tabloids, Cheryl & Dannii and those skimpy outfits.
Were you surprised to be in the bottom two on Sunday?
Chemmane: "Yeah, I think we were quite gutted and quite surprised. We thought we gave a very good performance and we didn't think we deserved to be in the bottom two."
Azi: "We gave it our all in our performance on Saturday. We're not blowing our own trumpets, but we honestly felt that we were one of the stronger acts. But we weren't shocked to be in the bottom two because we had a feeling that people were going to judge us on our past and not on our performance."
Do you think the tabloid reports played a big part in your exit?
Coco: "I think that yeah, it did. The public didn't really get to know us as people, the press focused on the stripping - which was silly, because they shouldn't have been focusing on our past. I think that if people actually got to know the real us - we're actually quite funny girls! - then they would have warmed to us and people would have voted for us. But we're really proud of ourselves. They were the best performances we've ever done and we're really proud to have gotten this far."
Do you think the comments from Dannii and Cheryl affected the public vote?
Azi: "We really respect those two, we really do, I feel that they bring a lot to the industry. But at the same time we didn't agree with it. We feel that they should have really judged us on our performance, on everything as a whole. At the end of the day we're Kandy Rain. We're not going to wear things you'd wear walking down the street. We were in costume and that's what Kandy Rain's all about."
Given their own outfits on occasion, do you think they were being hypocritical?
Azi: "The only thing that I felt was a bit hypocritical was when Cheryl said that we're not an established act. But I thought that was the whole point of X Factor: go on X Factor and show the public what you want to be, what you hope to be, and that's what we did. We don't want to be like other girl groups, we want to be in costume. We want to be fun, we want to bring back the old girl power. I felt that Cheryl didn't understand that."
Did you have input into the outfits or did Louis and the stylists make all the decisions
Chemmane: "Our stylist, Faye [Sawyer], that woman is absolutely amazing. She totally got us, she totally got Kandy Rain, and she totally got what image we wanted to go for. It's 2009 - look at the TV and all of the music videos. What we were wearing was similar to what you see at the moment, like Lady GaGa. We want to be putting on a show. We loved our outfits."
How do you think you would have done if you sung 'Fighter' on Saturday rather than as your survival song?
Khatereh: "I think that 'Addicted To Love' was the best song choice for the Saturday night. I think we that we wanted to do a song that showed us off vocally, performance-wise and to have fun with. 'Fighter' was the right song for the sing-off to show that we would be fighting till the end. We went out with a bang basically and we're really proud of ourselves."
How did you feel getting that vote from Simon at the end?
Azi: "To get the support from Simon was an absolute honour. Simon knows exactly what he's talking about and he's an absolute legend. For him to actually say 'Yes' to us, that's what actually made us feel really good. That's why when we woke up this morning we felt really positive. Simon believes in us! If Simon believes in us then we're doing something right. We'll keep on doing what we're doing and keep on promoting Kandy Rain, and hopefully everyone out there will get what we're all about."
